During interventional surgery, devices such as catheters and guide wires are often navigated through the body to deliver therapy to anatomical sites deep within a patient's body, often following quite complex three-dimensional paths. For guidance, a physician may use fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a localization system and/or other means of locating a medical device within the patient.
While the physician commonly uses his or her manipulative skills at the proximal end of the device in order to navigate the distal end of the device through the body, recent technological advances have made it possible to automate or semi-automate and thereby assist the process of navigation. For example, in one known magnetic navigation system, a device having a magnetic tip is steered by means of a magnetic field generated in the vicinity of the patient and directed by the operating physician. The physician may navigate the device from within, or remotely outside, the operating room.
Such remote actuation methods can greatly benefit from the use of a well-designed user interface. User interfaces are commonly provided in the form of a graphical user interface (GUI) and one or more associated input devices, for example, a two-dimensional display screen and a mouse or joystick. Manipulating the mouse or joystick with reference to a two-dimensional display, however, is intuitively and physically different from manually navigating a medical device along a three-dimensional and possibly constricted path in the subject.